Being FREE: Flow/Relax/Effortless Effort

The secret to living a Low Density Lifestyle is becoming FREE. In an earlier post, I explained what the acronym FREE means. It stands for Flow, Relax, Effortless Effort.

Because it is a very important concept, I want to discuss FREE a little further at length.

The Flow state is known to athletes as being “in the zone.”  To an athlete, this is where everything just seems to go their way. And athletes will be the first to tell you that when they are in the flow state, they perform at higher levels.

Shawn Phillips, the well-known athlete, bodybuilder and author of Strength for Life, had this to say about the subject:

From the beginning, what I was connecting with in the gym was a universal energy source. I would just feel it flowing. Even when I was twenty years old, I called the gym my church. When I was there, it wasn’t about being social; it was about doing my practice. I was in it. I was in the zone.

Paulo Coelho, author of The Alchemist, said,  “Be like the fountain that overflows, not like the cistern that merely contains.” In essence, this is what Flow is about. You become a circuit of energy, flowing infinitely, much like an unimpeded electrical circuit in which the electricity freely courses throughout.

Relax is something that doesn’t always come easy for many people. Sure, everybody knows how to veg out. But do you know how to profoundly relax, to tap into the stillness within and the center of your being?

To find that calmness and stillness within, you can do any number of things or techniques.  These can be meditation, prayer, walking in nature, speaking silently, listening to quiet engaging music, yoga, along with many other mind-body techniques.

A recent scientific study even found that relaxation techniques can beneficially affect your genes.

Relaxation is about finding your peace within the turmoil and hubbub of everyday life.  Some of you may do workshops or go to retreats or go on vacations to help find that inner quiet. And that is a good thing. But the trick is to embed that knowledge into your body and mind and integrate that understanding into your daily routine, so that everywhere you go, wherever you are, you are immersed in your stillness.

When you are acting with Effortless Effort, you can labor for hours on end, at times functioning on little sleep, and yet feel full of energy and life. You are firing on all cylinders, and the universe seems like a giant playground. You love what you do and you do what you love.

Interestingly enough, there are times when stress has a positive connotation. There is a term, eustress, which is the positive aspect of stress. In this case, a person is very busy, doing many things, but they are thriving in the midst of it, and loving how productive they are. A person in this situation is in full Effortless Effort mode. To an observer, it would seem as if this person is pushing themselves far too much and burning themselves out. But to the person immersed in Effortless Effort, they are thriving because they are firing on all cylinders and feeling alive, vibrant and awake.

And so, this is what being FREE is all about. Remember the formula? It’s LDL = FREE.  Keep that in mind–it will help you to live a Low Density Lifestyle.

Ten Signs That You’re Living a High Density Lifestyle

How do you know if you’re living a High Density Lifestyle?  Here are ten signs that will tell you if you are.  Ok, I’m having a little fun with it, but you’ll get the point when you go through it.

1. That Mother and her 3-year old just don’t seem to walk fast enough through the
crosswalk for you!
2. You begin to think that there is a conspiracy out there to make you late for work every single morning!
3. You’re starting a petition to replace food, water and air as our basic needs with an extra large coffee with triple cream and triple sugar.
4. When you leave the driveway in the morning it looks like a chase scene from your favorite police show.
5. The space around your lounge chair at your kid’s soccer, hockey or baseball games look like the desk at your office.
6. You pray for red lights because you figure that waiting at the light is a great time to get some business done.
7. You find sitting for anywhere beyond five minutes is a great time to get into REM state.
8. You’ve developed your own system of increasing muscle tone in your neck and shoulders without the benefits of working out!
9. You have discovered that ten minutes a day of crying is a new way of replacing meditation to release stress.
10. Whenever your heart starts beating fast you get excited because you’re reminded of your favorite disco tune.

Ok, so how did you fare?  Are you leading a High Density Lifestyle?

To achieve a Low Density Lifestyle might at first take work, but it is work that will pay off in tremendous dividends. Attaining this state is not hard, although for many of you there are countless roadblocks, most of which are self-inflicted.

But when you arrive at a Low Density Lifestyle you know it, because suddenly you begin to feel that everything flows and all tasks are done effortlessly. In this situation, the body and mind are in such resonance that you feel like you are “in the zone.”